A Design Guy - by Steve Thompson

Day 5, Part 1 of 2: Maison & Ob’jet, Paris

Welcome to the 5th and final day of this years Maison & Ob’jet Show! Here is Part I

In other posts on this show, we’ve looked at the efforts these vendors go to make their “stands” unique and different. Here they’re called stands, as opposed to booths as we call them in the US.

Below is an example of going over the top, literally!

The stand, below was certainly acidic in both orange and lemon, but my wife nor I ever figured out what it is they sell!

Another example of the detail a vendor will go: The manufacture of French clay dinnerware, Astier de Villatte, whose main store is in Paris at 173 Rue Saint-Honore.The photo below is of the store:

And, below is their display at the Maison & Ob’jet Show! Kind of fabulous, don’t you think?

And the Astier de Villatte, product, next three photographs, below:

The Benoit Tea Pot with Head, above. Most of the dinnerware pieces are offered in two finishes: All white glazed finish (shown left), or non-glazed exterior with glazed interior (shown right). Either way, they’re both beautiful.

Astier de Villatte has a complete dinnerware line, shown above.

The detail of an Astier de Villatte coffee cup, above.﻿

And, just when I thought I’d covered all of the stands with interesting displays, I passed two more:

The stand above, sells lighting, but went to great ends to create a suitable “living room” setting with a tight but imaginative budget: Cardboard walls and furniture, painted white then trimmed with black electrical tape!

The stand above, sells jewelry, handbags and small leather goods. They too used cardboard, but painted theirs black and used white paint to create “store windows” and “mannequins” which featured their merchandise. The necklace on the ‘mannequin’ is a real necklace, though she is one-dimensional, and the red handbags on the upper white shelf are a real shelf coming out of the wall. Interesting way to “fool the eye”! These French are clever I tell you!

A new line of containers for us featured non-fired mat finishes, with glazed interiors so they remain waterproof. We liked the shapes and textures found through out this line, below.

We picked up the four gigantic “cricket baskets” (shown below), which feature glass cylinder liners to hold large votive candles, creating a stunning but natural looking hurricane for outdoor entertaining.

An over sized pot from France with incredible “dry finish”. Dry finishes (looks like unglazed earthenware) is definitely a trend. We’re thinking of making it a lamp…what do you think?

Chain of glass, below. Each link holds a flower. Blown in the venetian style, these were thought provoking, indeed.

Mother of Pearl dish with almost fully formed pearls still attached. This occurs when both the nacre layers of the mother and of the pearl don’t separate, creating this phenomenon.

The ocean theme continues with the urchin like texture finish on the vases, below:

New, fabulous and can’t wait to get the poured and carved glass vases and bowls, pictured below. Finishes include mat, iridescent-like multi-layer colored, and clear.

Above: Three layers of colored glass give the look of iridescence, though it is not iridescent.

Dark wine colored glass is carved and blurred to give the soft glow on the hurricanes, above, mounted on sold brass repousse bases.

Oversized vessel with low sides, above

Wonderful steel blue glass, above.

Hide rug: An interesting way to join the hides of the Axis (non endangered!)

Before I end today’s post, I did manage to find a candidate or two for Worst of Show:

A scary sight indeed! For those of you who are devotees of MacKenzie-Childs dinnerware and accessories, rest assured that this vendor is no MacKenzie Childs!

And another scary sight (not really scary, just unattractive)! Was not sure why this mannequin was even at the entrance to the stand as we passed by. Most people took pictures of it, and didn’t bother to enter into the stand. Actually, I can’t tell you what they were selling (or not selling).

Horse floor lamp. Okay, I have to admit that maybe I could see how to use this floor lamp, but it would be very specific. I suggest if your tempted to buy it, rent it instead!

And for this Asian man floor lamp, I see no way to use this other than recycling, or is that up-cycling because you couldn’t go any lower? 🙂

That was some day, for sure! All for now. Please join me later this week for Day 5, Part II.